The inside guide on what’s happening at Austin City Hall, from American-Statesman reporters Elizabeth Findell and Phil Jankowski. Want to dish? Email efindell@statesman.com or pjankowski@statesman.com.

In December the American-Statesman conducted an anonymous survey, asking Austinites what they thought of the Austin City Council and Mayor Steve Adler in their first year in office. We got close to 900 …

On Friday afternoon at City Hall, Mayor Steve Adler held what’s known in media circles as an “availability,” which is basically a mini-press conference that gives reporters a chance to ask Adler about the week’s events.

For many Austinites, air conditioning is as much of a basic necessity as food, water and shelter. With summertime temperatures regularly soaring over 100 degrees, conventional wisdom holds that without the blessed invention of air conditioning, few would live in Central Texas.

But some energy efficiency experts recently questioned the assumption that air conditioning is a basic human right in Texas, leading to a particularly revealing exchange at a recent Austin …